Disrupted Functional Connectivity with Dopaminergic Midbrain in Cocaine Abusers

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 5; no. 5; p. e10815
• Main Authors: Tomasi, Dardo, Volkow, Nora D., Wang, Ruiliang, Carrillo, Jean H., Maloney, Thomas, Alia-Klein, Nelly, Woicik, Patricia A., Telang, Frank, Goldstein, Rita Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 25.05.2010; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Achievement tests; Activation; Addicts; Adult; Alcoholism; Attention task; BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES; Behavior - physiology; BRAIN; Brain Mapping; Brain research; CEREBELLUM; Cigarettes; COCAINE; Cocaine-Related Disorders - physiopathology; Comparative analysis; Cortex; DEACTIVATION; DOPAMINE; Dopamine - metabolism; Dopamine receptors; dopamineric; Drug abuse; Drug dosages; Education; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; FUNCTIONALS; GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; Humans; HYPOTHESIS; Laboratories; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mental Health/Neuropsychiatric Disorders; Mesencephalon; Mesencephalon - physiopathology; midbrain; Motivation; Narcotics; NERVE CELLS; Nerve Net - physiopathology; Neural networks; Neurological Disorders/Neuroimaging; Neurons; Neurotransmission; Nicotine; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Psychopharmacology; Radiology and Medical Imaging/Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Reinforcement; Standard scores; Task Performance and Analysis; THALAMUS; Thalamus - physiopathology; Toxicology; Urine; Validation studies; New York; United States > US; Maryland
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010815

Chronic cocaine use is associated with disrupted dopaminergic neurotransmission but how this disruption affects overall brain function (other than reward/motivation) is yet to be fully investigated. Here we test the hypothesis that cocaine addicted subjects will have disrupted functional connectivity between the midbrain (where dopamine neurons are located) and cortical and subcortical brain regions during the performance of a sustained attention task. We measured brain activation and functional connectivity with fMRI in 20 cocaine abusers and 20 matched controls. When compared to controls, cocaine abusers had lower positive functional connectivity of midbrain with thalamus, cerebellum, and rostral cingulate, and this was associated with decreased activation in thalamus and cerebellum and enhanced deactivation in rostral cingulate. These findings suggest that decreased functional connectivity of the midbrain interferes with the activation and deactivation signals associated with sustained attention in cocaine addicts.